On this day: Pope visits UK | Ice found on Mars

585BC: A timely total eclipse of the sun decided the Battle of Mesopotamia between Medes (now Iran) and Lydians (now Turkey). The blackened sky was read as a sign of God’s anger and an immediate truce was called.

1742: World’s first indoor swimming pool for the public opened in London. Entrance to the 43ft-long establishment in Lemon Street, Goodman’s Fields was one guinea.

1841: Seven ministers of the Presbytery of Strathbogie were deposed by the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland for obeying the civil rather than the ecclesiastical law.

1842: Britain’s first public library was opened in Frederick Street, Salford, Manchester.